Netflix Changes Rating System Because ‘5 Stars Feels Very Yesterday'

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Netflix vice president of product Todd Yellin says that the streaming giant has already been testing the replacement rating system among some customers and found a 200 percent increase in user reviews.

Say goodbye to Netflix’s five-star rating system. The entertainment company revealed Thursday that it would be replacing the feedback tool with a simple thumbs-up, thumbs-down format.

Netflix vice president of product Todd Yellin said that the streaming giant has already been testing the replacement rating system among some customers and found a 200 percent increase in user reviews. The change will hit all subscribers in April.

“Five stars feels very yesterday now,” Yellin said, according to reporters present at the briefing. “We’re spending many billions of dollars on the titles we’re producing and licensing, and with these big catalogs, that just adds a challenge.”

Gizmodo’s Rhett Jones said the change was “troubling,” as it could further limit consumers’ ability to discover content on the streaming service.

“It would be nice if Netflix would offer more choice for how its customers want to browse,” Jones wrote. “A slew of websites and extensions offer better ways to browse the service. Entertainment sites regularly round up what’s coming and going from the Netflix options each month. There has to be a better way.”

But Netflix is keen to get more people rating content so it can understand what viewers really want to watch.

The Verge’s Lauren Goode also reported that with the rating change, comes more attempts from Netflix to use algorithms to match viewers with content they would like by showing a percentage beneath the title.